Terry-Mitchell blogTerry Mitchell (836)    Terry Mitchell    http://commenterry.blogs.com Three Cheers for the U.S. Supreme CourtPosted Monday, July 07, 2008 (1 day 18 hours ago.) Viewed 658 times.
I believe the U.S. Supreme Court is to be applauded for its last three major decisions. I'm referring to its recent decisions to guarantee habeas corpus rights to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, strike down the death penalty for child rapists in Louisiana, and invalidate the handgun ban in the District of Columbia. In each of these cases, it has sided with common sense over zealotry. Denying habeas corpus rights to anyone is un-American, even when it's being done to foreigners suspected of committing acts of terrorism against the United States or conspiracy to commit such acts. And according the Supreme Court's ruling, it's also unconstitutional. What did it accomplish anyway? It certainly didn't make us any safer. The only thing I see that it did is make the rest of the world hate us. Is that what we wanted? Those on the losing side of this argument are now saying that extending habeas corpus rights to terrorism suspects will certainly lead to more American deaths. Don't believe them – they're trying to sell us a bill of goods. It's nothing but the politics of fear, a tactic that the Bush Administration has been using for nearly eight years. No one wants to side with child rapists, but should they be executed for their crimes? Making them pay the ultimate price seems disproportional to me. One of the principles of the rule of law is that the punishment must fit the crime. When the punishment is far more severe than the crime, we have a case of cruel and unusual punishment. It could also be considered cruel and unusual because most states ban the death penalty for anything other than murder. That's the way the Supreme Court saw it in striking down Louisiana's application of the death penalty to child rapists. Any time someone hurts a child, people naturally react to it emotionally. But we can't let emotions dictate law. Law must be applied with logic, reason, and fairness. Lawmakers in the state of Louisiana, along with those in a handful of other states, apparently allowed their emotions to guide them in writing laws that made child rapists eligible for the death penalty. One other thing that needs to be considered here is that executing child rapists puts their victims in greater danger of being murdered. If someone who rapes a child knows that he will get the death penalty for that act, he has no motivation to spare the child's life. The punishment for rape and murder would be the same, so (to his way of thinking) he might as well kill the child he raped in order to keep him or her from telling about it, thus making it less likely that he will be caught. The Court's decision on handguns affirmed the rights of individuals to own guns and keep them in their homes. Hysterical anti-gun lobbyists would have taken this precious right away if they could have, and were hoping the High Court would give them just that opportunity. Thank God it made the right decision! Whether the Second Amendment applied to individual gun owners (in addition to militias) should never have been in dispute, but apparently it was. Hopefully, this decision has settled the matter once and for all. 
Permalink Comments (2) Reality Show is Birth Control for Any AgePosted Thursday, July 03, 2008 (5 days 16 hours ago.) Viewed 60 times. NBC's new reality show The Baby Borrowers is billed as a deterrent to teenage pregnancy a kind of "birth control" for teenagers. The premise of the show is honorable. The producers want to show teens that parenthood is far from being a picnic. Of course, this goal is in addition to providing an entertaining show for the viewing audience and getting high ratings. However, after watching portions of the premiere episode last week, I can see how this show could (and rightfully so) discourage anyone at any age from wanting to have children. And that's where it may reveal a little hypocrisy in the conventional wisdom. I bet many of the people who would nod with approval at the concept of this show are some the same ones who are now bugging their 30-something, married, and childless sons and daughters to give them grandchildren. They fail to take into account the possibility that their children, though having long since left their teen years, might be putting off parenthood (or passing it up completely) to avoid many of the potential trials and tribulations depicted in The Baby Borrowers. Do we really believe that the problems and frustrations that come with rearing children suddenly disappear with additional years, higher education, and the onset of maturity? Are we that nave? We need to start acknowledging the fact that, although naturally more difficult for immature teens, being a parent is no easy job for anyone. It's not for everyone and should only be entered into with a clear understanding of what lies ahead. It's a multiyear commitment that should be taken on only by couples who possess the wherewithal, patience, and aspiration to raise children effectively and guide them toward becoming productive adults.
Permalink Comments (0) The 2008 Republican Presidential Primary Season: A ReviewPosted Monday, June 30, 2008 (8 days 18 hours ago.) Viewed 1,008 times. For those of you who have been asleep or just haven't paid any attention to presidential politics over the last several months, let's review how John McCain became the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. There was no shortage of candidates, but only McCain, Rudy Giuliani, Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and Mike Huckabee had a realistic chance at the nomination. Throughout most of 2007, Giuliani had led in the polls and it looked at as if he would head into 2008 as the clear frontrunner. However, his fortunes began to change shortly after Thanksgiving. That's when his polls numbers began to drop in the key early states of Iowa and New Hampshire. He was overtaken by Romney in those states before 2007 was over. However, Giuliani still ended the year at the top of most national surveys of GOP presidential candidates. McCain had a bad 2007 overall and, at one point during the summer, his fundraising suffered so much that it looked as if he might drop out of the race. However, he hung in there and, by the time the year ended, his poll numbers in New Hampshire were beginning to surge. McCain got a major break when Huckabee became the surprise winner of the Iowa Caucuses, the first contest of the year. Had Romney won Iowa, he would have almost certainly won New Hampshire as well, with it being next door to Massachusetts, where he had recently been the governor. And from there, with of his financial resources and momentum in hand, he would have been poised to run the table the rest of the way and roll to the nomination. But Huckabee's win reshuffled the political deck of cards. Romney's disappointing second-place finish in Iowa, while not devastating, dealt him a setback and provided additional impetus to McCain's resurgence in New Hampshire. Although McCain finished fourth in Iowa, just behind Thompson, he didn't spend much time or money there. He was focusing on New Hampshire instead. Giuliani finished way back in the pack in Iowa. McCain was able to edge out Romney in New Hampshire, handing him his second straight disappointing runner-up finish and further weakening his campaign. Huckabee's momentum from the win in Iowa was only able to get him a third-place finish in New Hampshire, but he seemed to be satisfied with that outcome. He knew going in that no southern candidate from either party, who was not an incumbent President or Vice President, had ever won a New Hampshire presidential primary. Huckabee, therefore, considered his next big battleground to be South Carolina. Giuliani had another poor showing, with Thompson doing even worse. Giuliani was putting all of his eggs in the Florida basket. Ditto Thompson in South Carolina. Romney bounced back in Michigan by winning a tight contest over McCain. It was a must-win for Romney that left him, McCain, and Huckabee with one major win each after the first three contested matches. South Carolina and Florida would be the tiebreakers. In South Carolina, McCain won a close race with Huckabee. Thompson's third-place finish forced him out of the race. In Florida's winner-take-all primary, McCain won again, beating out Romney. Giuliani's poor showing there forced him out of the race. Therefore, heading into Super Tuesday, there were just three candidates remaining McCain, Romney, and Huckabee with McCain in the lead in delegates and having taken over the mantle of clear frontrunner for the nomination. Romney was hoping to resuscitate his campaign on Super Tuesday by winning some of the southern and lower Midwest states like West Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, Missouri (winner-take-all), and Oklahoma; and by beating McCain in California or at least coming close there. That would be in addition to Massachusetts and the heavily Mormon Utah, places where he was pretty much guaranteed to win. Huckabee was hoping to win his home state of Arkansas along with a majority of those southern and lower Midwest states that Romney was targeting. McCain was focused on those states as well, along with most of the northeast (most of which were winner-take-all), Illinois, California, and his home state of Arizona (also winner-take-all). Romney was devastated on Super Tuesday when he won none of those southern and lower Midwest states that he had targeted and was blown out by McCain in California. He did win Massachusetts, Utah, Colorado, and caucuses in Minnesota and some smaller states. However, those wins could not save his campaign and he dropped out a few days later. Huckabee won Arkansas, West Virginia, Georgia, Alabama, and Tennessee. That was enough to keep him alive to fight another day. In addition to his big win in California, McCain won New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Illinois, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Arizona. Since most of those states were winner-take-all, he easily got the majority of the delegates up for grabs on Super Tuesday. At that point, four of the five most populous states had conducted their primaries and McCain had won them all! Super Tuesday had left him on the verge of claiming the nomination. A few days later, Huckabee was able to win in Kansas and Louisiana to keep his faint hopes for the nomination alive. However, McCain responded with crushing wins in Virginia, Maryland, and the District of Columbia. On March 4, McCain finished Huckabee off and put himself over the top in delegates needed for the nomination by sweeping the states of Texas, Ohio, Vermont, and Rhode Island. It should be noted that if the Republicans had used a proportional system of allocating delegates like the Democrats use, many of McCain's victories would not have been nearly as decisive as they were and the nomination battle would have gone on much longer. As it was, however, McCain became the GOP presumptive presidential nominee in early March, long before the dust settled on the Democratic side.
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